If happiness were easy- philosophies for a better life.

Chapter 1- What is happiness?

 Most people know what happiness is, at least in a scientific way. By definition, happiness is a chain of chemical reactions that takes place in your brain, thanks to outbursts of pleasure inducing chemicals, like dopamine or oxytocin.   While this is the technical and perhaps neurological way of looking at it, this definition of happiness is, for lack of a better term, shallow. Almost anything can get these chemicals flowing. Sugary or fatty foods, Gambling, Rollercoasters, even looking at a love interest. These types of happiness or momentary, surface level, and quick to fade. In my eyes, there are  2 primary divisions of happiness. Long term and short term, and  true happiness and  base happiness. Let's get into the first division- long term versus short term happiness. Despite the names, long term happiness and short term happiness are largely related. Short term happiness is exactly what is sounds like— happiness that lasts a short amount of time. For example, if you go out and get drunk, you will feel high in that moment,  but when you wake up the next morning, all those feelings will be gone. Short term happiness is not always a bad thing. If you go outside and pet your dog for, say,  20 minutes or so, you will feel happy in that moment.  However, since you are creating a bond with another spiritual being (Yes! Dogs are very high on the spiritual plane!) you are building a lasting relationship. If you continue to do the same, this short term happiness will eventually turn into the long term stuff that everyone strives for. However, not all short term happiness will manifest this way. This is where we get into what is perhaps the most important distinguishment—  true and base happiness. Before I continue, let us first observe a key principle of human behavior. While we, along with most every species share a base need for things  such as food, shelter, water, and reproduction, we also have a soul, a life energy that fills every ounce of our being and makes us who we are. Similar to how our physical needs must be met for our bodies to stay healthy, our spiritual needs must be met to keep our souls healthy. Our spiritual happiness is what I refer to as true happiness, while our physical needs are base happiness. Don't get me wrong- base happiness is not  always necessarily bad. You do have to have these needs met in order to feel happy. A starving man is much less likely to be content, and it is important to take care of yourself. In fact, it is  even ok to indulge in these physical, base pleasures sometimes. Treating yourself every once in a while, or having a beer once a month or engaging with your significant other, these are no crime. It is the overdoing of these things whilst neglecting your spiritual needs that should be avoided. If one relies to solely on base happiness for their spiritual needs, they may feel empty or feel they need to partake in cheap thrills all the time to feel joy, since they don't have a spiritual outlet. Their relationships may falter,  and they may find it harder to relate with other. This is not  guaranteed or even expected to happen if someone takes part in cheap thrills every once in a while, but doing these things constantly without taking care of ones spiritual side is less than desirable. Spiritual needs, as aforementioned, refer to the feeding and development of your soul. The MOST effective way to feed your soul is to work for the benefit of others. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING does the trick like helping other souls. I know this sounds incredibly cliche, but only because it's been proven again and again. We are social animals, and we love being around others. We also have the deep, evolutionary mindset that if the pack benefits, we benefit. Therefore, that rush of joy you get when you know you made someone's day better, or even if you just wave at a stranger, and they wave back, this is true happiness. This comes from a much deeper place than base happiness. This kind of joy is MUCH more likely to manifest itself as long term happiness, and it can have other benefits as well. Your self confidence will rise, you will feel more connected with others, and you will feel, overall, like a better person.  In Conclusion,  striving for spiritual, long term happiness will leave you a better and more content individual.